1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to barbed sutures. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods of forming barbed sutures from blown films.
2. Background of Related Art
Methods of forming barbed sutures are known. Typically, sutures are made from filaments, and methods for making such sutures generally include the steps of extruding at least one bioabsorbable or nonbioabsorbable polymer to provide filaments, drawing or stretching the solidified filaments to achieve molecular orientation, and annealing the drawn filaments to relieve internal stresses.
Barbs may then be formed on a filament utilizing such processes as cutting, injection molding, extrusion, and stamping. For example, barbs may be formed by making angular cuts directly into the suture body, with cut portions pushed outwardly and separated from the body of the suture. Other suitable methods of cutting barbs include the use of a laser or manual methods. With regard to molding barbs, a polymeric filament may be placed within a mold and a molten polymer may be injected into the mold and allowed to cool and solidify to form a barbed suture.
The utilization of a blown film as a barbed suture, and the process of making the same, offers many advantages over the conventional methods of forming barbed sutures. For example, barbs may be cut into the blown film before suture formation for ease of manufacture. Moreover, sutures of different lengths, diameters, and barb configurations may be easily made by varying the length, width, and/or thickness of the blown film, as well as the cuts made therein. Bioactive agents may also be more easily incorporated into the suture, such as by bulk loading, given the larger surface area of the blown film. Additionally, the process may be engineered to be continuous thereby making the cost of production considerably lower than current suture forming methods which are very machine and time intensive.